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What Would the End of Football Look Like?
Grantland ^ | FEBRUARY 13, 2012 | KEVIN GRIER AND TYLER COWEN

Posted on 08/23/2015 12:39:56 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

he NFL is done for the year, but it is not pure fantasy to suggest that it may be done for good in the not-too-distant future. How might such a doomsday scenario play out and what would be the economic and social consequences?

By now we’re all familiar with the growing phenomenon of head injuries and cognitive problems among football players, even at the high school level. In 2009, Malcolm Gladwell asked whether football might someday come to an end, a concern seconded recently by Jonah Lehrer.

Before you say that football is far too big to ever disappear, consider the history: If you look at the stocks in the Fortune 500 from 1983, for example, 40 percent of those companies no longer exist. The original version of Napster no longer exists, largely because of lawsuits. No matter how well a business matches economic conditions at one point in time, it’s not a lock to be a leader in the future, and that is true for the NFL too. Sports are not immune to these pressures. In the first half of the 20th century, the three big sports were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, and today only one of those is still a marquee attraction.

(Excerpt) Read more at grantland.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: concussions
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To: SamAdams76
I'm thinking the NFL will eventually evolve to become "tag" football.

As odd as that is, it was actually my first thought as well. But I wonder, IF restrictions are necessary, would it work just as well to place a limit on the total number of games a player could play in?

Kickers would have a very high limit, or maybe none at all. But running backs would have a low limit. Reach your limit, and you are retired.

21 posted on 08/23/2015 1:02:30 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: ichabod1
This time it really is about the children. IF it turns out to be true that football, played as directed, causes brain injury in all of kids that play it, then it is child abuse to allow kids to play. Period, end of.

Perhaps change the rules so the helmet will be banned and the game will evolve to something like rugby.

22 posted on 08/23/2015 1:04:22 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican (.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Bubble Ball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKZoCjWnmVk


23 posted on 08/23/2015 1:06:17 PM PDT by donna (Pray for Revival.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

24 posted on 08/23/2015 1:06:34 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

and what will happen to all the 50 IQ, sterioded up, black thugs who can’t convert to basketball?


25 posted on 08/23/2015 1:06:40 PM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: ichabod1

Something like this would be a better fit.

26 posted on 08/23/2015 1:07:29 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican (.)
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To: rigelkentaurus

27 posted on 08/23/2015 1:07:47 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
I think what you might see with football is what has happened with boxing: Fewer and fewer white guys will even go into it. There are better ways to make a living--including safer ways of using your athletic ability--than getting multiple brain injuries and ending up crippled and in a mental fog in your fifties.

The decline of football doesn't bother me so much, because I've always been more of a baseball fan. I used to watch the NFL more in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, but not so much the last couple of decades. Haven't watched many games at all in the last ten or twelve years.

28 posted on 08/23/2015 1:08:12 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson
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To: MinorityRepublican

What’s wrong with splitting the league by weight? Maybe make a 250-lbs and under and a 251-lbs and over. It seems that the concussions come from 300-lbs+ guys hitting the much lighter guys.


29 posted on 08/23/2015 1:09:57 PM PDT by rabidralph
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To: SamAdams76

Nude coed tag football might be popular

Rules on scoring would have to be changed


30 posted on 08/23/2015 1:10:11 PM PDT by jcon40
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To: MinorityRepublican

Reporter with:

1: An assignment

2: Column inches to fill

3: Nothing to write about.

Creates articles such as this.


31 posted on 08/23/2015 1:11:32 PM PDT by Crystal Palace East (Are Crybaby Conservatives, calling everyone else RINOs, really Dems trying to get you to not vote?)
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To: MinorityRepublican

It’s over for me. They are wildly overpaid and have gotten increasingly politicized. The NFL is a big part of the circus , as in “give them bread and circuses”. They are a tool and a profit center of the Ruling Elite.


32 posted on 08/23/2015 1:11:52 PM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: ClearCase_guy

Yes, we should just play soccer like the rest of the pansies in the world.


33 posted on 08/23/2015 1:12:14 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Leaning Right
Kickers would have a very high limit, or maybe none at all. But running backs would have a low limit. Reach your limit, and you are retired.

100 carries limit per season for running backs. No limit in the playoffs.

34 posted on 08/23/2015 1:12:29 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican (.)
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To: SamAdams76

You mean devolve?


35 posted on 08/23/2015 1:13:12 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: MinorityRepublican

This blog was written over 3 years ago and football is more popular now than it was then. It isn’t going anywhere.

PC may change the NFL as long as they allow it, but even the NFL could disappear and few would care after about 5 years. The high school year is built around football — homecoming, marching band competition, sponsorships, etc. College football is more popular than ever and if they ever get a REAL playoff, it will explode. How many people don’t have at least ONE school they can root for (whether they attended or not). My wife is sometimes more excited about watching college football than I am (at least, my school), and routinely has the NFL on if the Cowboys are playing.


36 posted on 08/23/2015 1:14:31 PM PDT by 1L
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To: MinorityRepublican

I don’t remember the gladiators whining about injuries.


37 posted on 08/23/2015 1:15:01 PM PDT by Ronald_Magnus
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To: rabidralph
Or put maybe a 280-pound weight limit on all players. A few decades ago there were virtually no players over 280 pounds. There is no need for any athlete, no matter how tall, to be over 280, or even 270.

And there needs to be more enforcement on no launching and no helmet strikes (delivered or delivering). Tackling needs to be more about wrapping up and taking down.

38 posted on 08/23/2015 1:17:13 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson (6'3", 255)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The NFL died with artificial turf and coaches calling the plays. It’s a socialist, barbaric mess. It’s spectacle, not sport. It’s going back to it’s roots - a sport for desperate, poor kids. Like boxing.


39 posted on 08/23/2015 1:18:50 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (Sheep need leaders. Politicians work for US.)
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To: ichabod1

>>youth football will become tag football

Youth needs to go to 7 on 7 - what we play here in Texas during the offseason. Its pretty much a passing only touch game. If they can figure out how to incorporate at least SOME running, it would be a little better. But the point is that kids don’t need to be playing tackle until 7th grade where (at least in some states) they can be coached by teachers who are professionals and not dads who washed out on JV in HS but THINK they know what they are doing.

The worst Jr. High coaches I’ve seen (probably a couple of thousand total) are light years better than the best pee-wee coaches. Plus the way some of these pee-wee leagues are run are ridiculous. 10 minute quarters for 8 and 9 year olds; flag football for 5 year olds who are only there because their parents want them there; parents that are WAY too into the game.


40 posted on 08/23/2015 1:19:04 PM PDT by 1L
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